Tuesday, 17 September 2013

Review: What Money Can Buy (Adult/Erotic Book)

ALL THE MONEY IN THE WORLD...When sexy temp Lauren is summoned to the office of her fearsome, billionaire boss Jason King, she's certain that she's about to be fired. Struggling to make ends meet and working two jobs to pay her father's medical bills, Lauren braces herself for a dressing-down from the handsome, enigmatic playboy.CAN BUY ANYTHING YOU DESIRE...But Jason King has other plans. He's been watching Lauren since the day she arrived, ready to sweep her off her feet and bring her into his world of wealth, success, power and sex.BUT THERE'S ALWAYS A COST.In a few short days, Lauren's world is turned upside-down as her meager existence collides with Jason's extravagant life. From New York to Milan to Venice, her alpha male boss leads her down a rabbit-hole of lust and extravagance that proves intoxicating. But his world is littered with domination and deception...and Lauren is falling fast for her mysterious billionaire, with consequences that will change her life forever.

Star Rating

2 / 5

What Money Can Buy by Katie Cramer was a book I found for
free on Amazon. While I will admit there are some interesting lines and
expressions in this book, it didn't really capture my interest in general. The
story felt almost non-existent (the blurb sounds so interest, but the book itself pales in comparison) and it seems a half-hearted attempt to explain why
two people were engaging in sex. I have read a few random paragraphs from 50
Shades of Grey by E. L. James and Cramer's book was both better written and more
interesting, but it still boiled down to something I could have done without
reading. The lack of character development was also a huge turn off for me.

Review

There are always books out there that have an amazing blurb. You prepare yourself for this and that and you have high expectations - or at least some idea of what will occur in the book. Unfortunately, I felt the story didn't really stand up to the blurb. I was expecting to learn of a young woman's struggles, then of a man's dark world and all the fun bits in between. Instead the story was spread thin. It touches on Lauren's difficulty - her father and money troubles - and Jason's foul business plays. There's nothing gripping or engaging. Even the 'playboy' we're meant to get excited about just seems boring.

Both main characters are pretty dull. Our female lead,
Lauren, starts off by being rather presumptuous - she makes a dramatic
statement for almost no reason in the beginning of the novel ('There was a
chink in this guy's armor – and I was it.'). She decides to have sex with her 'arrogant',
'intimidating' and 'sexist' boss, despite not knowing the man. Her reason? 'His
hard chest muscles'. She's shallow, over excitable and rather trite. I wonder
why she is given a back story of a sick father and two jobs to pay for his
medical care when she generally seems so far from what you would expect someone
in that situation to be like. Her character bounces between challenging the
male lead, Jason (or Mr King) for control and being absolutely submissive -
though she's generally the latter.

Meanwhile, Jason is given some dialogue which suggests he
might rape the female lead, though, of course, she wants it - so no rape ever
occurs. He makes a grand gesture of paying for Lauren's expenses for her
father's medical treatment with the reason: 'what’s the point of money if you can't
do anything good with it?'. A good point, but he could donate to charity, pay
for other people's medical care when they are in need, in addition to spending
money on his sex partner/girlfriend/wife. Does he do this? It's never
mentioned. So it seems like it's just a gesture to win Lauren over.

The series name is Billionaire Domination and Submission
BDSM Erotic Romance. I don't think the material really matched that. There was
a bit of spanking, a brief gag, some secretary-boss roleplaying and that was
that. In my mind this light play doesn't validate the tags of BDSM.

It seems, from the brief summary of the sequel, that
there may be more plot and character development in the second book. However, I
really wasn't thrilled enough to continue even with the dim hope that the next
book could be an improvement.

It's readable, there's just little character development
or motivation, and equally little plot. That isn't really the sort of thing I
like to read, but from the looks of other reviews lots of people like this
book. However, not every popular book is a good book, for example Fifty Shades
of Grey. I think if you just want to read sex scenes then you will like this
book, but if you read books for characters or story then I suggest picking
another book.